The History of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Part One: From Marching Bands to Celebrities

Summary

Ridiculous History: The History of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Part One: From Marching Bands to Celebrities

Published on November 26, 2024 by iHeartPodcasts

---

Overview

In the premiere episode of their two-part series on the evolution of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, hosts Ben Bullen and Noel Brown delve deep into the origins and early transformations of what has become one of the most watched entertainment spectacles in the world. Beginning with humble beginnings featuring collegiate marching bands, the episode traces the Super Bowl Halftime Show's journey toward the grandiose celebrity performances we witness today. Along the way, the hosts explore significant events, cultural impacts, and intriguing anecdotes that highlight the halftime show's transformation from a simple intermission to a global phenomenon.

---

Origins of the Super Bowl Halftime Show

The Super Bowl Halftime Show began in 1967, coinciding with the merger of the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). Initially intended to celebrate collegiate spirit and musicality, the first halftime show featured marching bands from the University of Arizona and Grambling State University.

Ben Bullen [07:32]: "Let's talk about the founding of the Super Bowl or Superb Owl. Let's talk about the very first halftime show and how we got from there to the madcap insanity of theatre that the halftime show has become today."

The inaugural performance aimed to provide a wholesome entertainment break, focusing on school fight songs and patriotic tunes. However, it wasn't long before attempts to innovate led to memorable, albeit mishap-prone, moments.

---

Early Attempts to Spice Up the Halftime Shows

One of the earliest notable incidents occurred during the fourth Super Bowl in 1970, held in New Orleans. The organizers attempted to add theatrical flair by staging a reenactment of the Battle of New Orleans, complete with reenactors, cannons, and even the white stallion of Andrew Jackson. Unfortunately, the event was marred by logistical failures, including a hot air balloon crash.

Noel Brown [33:42]: "They snagged a goalpost and they couldn't get it off the field. The balloon crashes into the stands. No entries."

This fiasco highlighted the challenges of balancing entertainment with the primary focus on the game itself. The overly ambitious "Roman circus" display, as one sports writer described it, drew criticism for overshadowing the football match.

---

Cultural Impact and Challenges

As the Super Bowl grew in popularity, so did the expectations for its halftime show. The shift from simple band performances to more elaborate productions reflected broader trends in American entertainment, emphasizing spectacle and commercialization.

A recurring theme discussed by the hosts is the Super Bowl's dual identity as both a sporting event and a major cultural celebration. Even for those uninterested in football, the halftime show often serves as a compelling reason to tune in.

Ben Bullen [06:04]: "During halftime in any other less American sport, people would walk and get snacks. There would be it would be an intermission like in your favorite play... In American football, they have a big show."

This cultural significance is evident in the Super Bowl's ability to attract massive advertising revenues and global attention, making the halftime show a pivotal moment for both performers and brands.

---

Misinformation and Misconceptions

The episode also touches on common misconceptions about the halftime show's history, such as the erroneous belief that the Three Stooges performed during the first halftime show. This myth, debunked by sources like Snopes, exemplifies how folklore can sometimes overshadow factual history.

Noel Brown [28:25]: "It is a factoid or a piece of misinformation to say the Three Stooges performed at the halftime show."

Such inaccuracies underscore the importance of historical scrutiny, especially as the halftime show becomes increasingly entwined with pop culture narratives.

---

Notable Anecdotes and Highlights

Several memorable anecdotes from early halftime shows are recounted, illustrating both the creativity and the pitfalls faced by organizers:

• Duke Fields and the Jetpack Stunt: During the first halftime show, a display featuring performers with jetpacks was a novelty that left a lasting impression, despite its impracticality.

  Duke Fields [25:19]: "Then I saw the Rocket Men. Two guys with jet packs. My God, those things were loud."

• Salute to the Caribbean (1979): An attempt to incorporate Caribbean themes resulted in a humorous mishap when a goalpost snagged a float, preventing it from leaving the field.

• Storming the Stage (1982): Fans seemingly invaded the stage, leading performers to improvise a choreographed dance routine reminiscent of a flash mob.

These stories highlight the evolving nature of the halftime show, balancing innovation with tradition.

---

Transition to Modern Halftime Shows

As the series draws to a close, Bullen and Brown set the stage for Part Two, which promises to explore the transformation of the halftime show into the star-studded performances we see today. They hint at discussing how the show increasingly incorporated mainstream pop artists and how it became a central element of the Super Bowl experience.

Ben Bullen [47:09]: "We can probably pause right now just before we get to the modern Super Bowl halftime show and the madness that will ensue. So join us later this week for part two..."

---

Conclusion

Part One of "The History of the Super Bowl Halftime Show" offers a comprehensive look into the show's early days, highlighting its origins, initial challenges, and gradual shift towards larger-scale productions. By examining key events and missteps, Bullen and Brown provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of how the halftime show evolved from a simple performance by marching bands to a cornerstone of American pop culture. Part Two is eagerly anticipated, promising further exploration into the spectacle and significance of contemporary halftime performances.

---

Notable Quotes

• Ben Bullen [07:32]: "We are talking about that sport called football... it's something you don't have to be a football head to enjoy."

• Noel Brown [33:42]: "They snagged a goalpost and they couldn't get it off the field. The balloon crashes into the stands. No entries."

• Ben Bullen [28:25]: "It is a factoid or a piece of misinformation to say the Three Stooges performed at the halftime show."

• Duke Fields [25:19]: "Then I saw the Rocket Men. Two guys with jet packs. My God, those things were loud."

---

Looking Ahead

Stay tuned for Part Two of the series, where Ben Bullen and Noel Brown will delve into the modern era of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, exploring its rise to prominence, iconic performances, and the intricate balance between sports and spectacle.

---

This summary is based on the transcript provided and aims to encapsulate the key discussions, insights, and anecdotes shared by the hosts in Part One of their exploration into the Super Bowl Halftime Show's history.

Transcript

[Ben Bullen]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you as always, so much for tuning in. That's Our super producer, Mr. Max Williams.

[Noel Brown]

With arms wide open. Yes, arms wide open under the sunlight, sunshine and a boob exposed. Oh, no, say it ain't so.

[Ben Bullen]

And I think we have all, off air, pledged to stop lip syncing this podcast based on some of the stuff we've learned in our special Thanksgiving series. Welcome to our two part episode on the history of the halftime show.

[Noel Brown]

Indeed. And you know, it's funny, this being a podcast, y'all would never know sitting at home that we have wardrobe malfunctions almost every single week.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And I mean, are they malfunctions or are they artistic expression? Right.

[Max Williams]

Either way, HR knows a lot about.

[Noel Brown]

Well, that is, you know, what's. Oh, my gosh, Ben, I'm glad you brought that up. Let's save it for when we get into the particular event in question. But I think that is a lingering conspiratorial question about that whole debacle. Right. Was it intentional or was it a malfunction?

[Ben Bullen]

I'm Ben Bullen, you're Noel Brown. We have been going through a bit of a sports phase. Off and on. This episode about halftime shows is something that you don't have to be a football head to enjoy. Oh, football head. I forgot that's an insult. Okay.

[Noel Brown]

Is it? Oh, yeah, that's what they called Arnold on Hey, Arnold. The Nickelodeon children's cartoon.

[Ben Bullen]

Well, ridiculous historians, fellow boyos, if that's another reference from Arnold or girlos alike. Anyway, kiddos, we're talking about. We are talking about that sport called football. It's confusing to the rest of the world because as Nate Bargetzi said on Saturday Night Live, it's the sport where you rarely use your feet. There's sometimes there's a little kicking.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. But it's in the name, which kind of makes it extra confusing. Not to mention that I think the more globally popular use of that name is in fact a sport where you use your feet exclusively. Maybe a little knee, maybe a little head. But we do typically refer to this as American football.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes.

[Max Williams]

It's also the most popular sport in the world. Was already being called football. Soccer. Nah, get out of the way. Get out of the way. We're calling our sport football.

[Ben Bullen]

Right.

[Max Williams]

It's the imperial system of sports.

[Ben Bullen]

Right. It's like if you were getting into acting today and your name was Bill Murray, somebody would have to change their name. And it's not going to be Bill Prime. You know, that's true.

[Noel Brown]

That's true. I mean, it's one of those things like that. We're all big fans of that show Slow Horses, which was created and often written by a guy named Will Smith who just decided he was going to rock. With Will Smith, no man in black was going to force him to change his name.

[Ben Bullen]

It's the wild, wild west out there in Hollywood. Technically, it's in the western part of the country. Moving on. Whether you love or hate football in the United States, especially when it comes to revenue, American football is king. With new Home Internet plus from T Mobile, you can boost your connection to places it hasn't reached before.

[Noel Brown]

Get a free upgrade to T Mobile Home Internet plus while supplies last.

[Ben Bullen]

Home Internet plus starts at 50 bucks a month with autopay and any voice line.

[Noel Brown]

Check availability@t mobile.com home Internet and get Internet right where you want it.

[Ben Bullen]

During congestion, customers on this plan may notice speeds lower than other customers and further reduction if using greater than 1.2 TB bytes per month due to data prioritization.

[Noel Brown]

After $20 bill credit plus $5 per month without auto pay, debit or bank.

[Ben Bullen]

Account required, regulatory fees included for qualifying accounts. $35 connection charge applies. Maybe we pop the top on this bad boy with a quote from our pal Kurt Badenhausen over at Sportico.

[Noel Brown]

I love the name Sportico and I also love the name Kurt Badenhausen. The NFL posted an annual revenue of 20.5 billion dol year in this 20232024 season. And that is not including college football. And you know, we've talked a little bit in recent episodes just about how football American football, we will just be calling it football in this episode is uniquely designed to serve ads on the regular because of the kind of herky jerky, starty, stoppy nature of the game.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, especially in its modern iteration are arguably the most American part of American football is not the game itself. It's something that occurs during the biggest stop and start period of your typical game, which is halftime. During halftime in any other less American sport, people would walk and get snacks. There would be it would be an intermission like in your favorite play or in the film my dad tricked me into seeing as a child Gettysburg, which is super duper long for a child and has an intermission. They don't do any of that in football. In American football they have a big show. Especially during the biggest game in all of football, the super bowl. There's a halftime show and a lot of People who don't even care about football, the sport, still tune in just for this particular moment to see their favorite celebrity and possibly the newest pop culture scandal occur between the first and second part of the game in real time.

[Noel Brown]

And that's not to say that, you know, you couldn't use this if you were more of the sporto variety. Use this as an opportunity to go grab yourself a beer or a snack. But your eyeballs would be missing out on some serious displays of opulence.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes. Yeah. Again, thoroughly American in the most hyperbolic of ways. You'll see some of the greatest musicians of all time singing or pretending to sing as we'll get to. You'll also see elaborate stage craft and choreography and of course, once in a while, a boob.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, once in a while. Bet he'll have her naked by the end of this song. And he did do that thing.

[Ben Bullen]

You dog. You dog.

[Noel Brown]

J.T. justin Timberlake.

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, he's been going through it. I hope things are all right for him. But our question in this week's series, as you celebrate the holidays with your family, you may be about to watch this massive celebration. Where did it come from? Let's talk about the founding of the super bowl or Superb Owl. Let's talk about the very first halftime show and how we got from there to the mad cap insanity of theater that the halftime show has become today. Maybe, you know, Noel, maybe before we. To really understand the super bowl, maybe we talk a little bit about what American football is because we've said it's different from, you know, the more popular football.

[Noel Brown]

I could sure use a refresher. It's one of the ones that still continues to confound me, and it confounds many others who are unfamiliar with the sport who might be watching it for the first time. What is the deal with this whole display of Napoleonic trench warfare that Max very helpfully pointed out to me is a very, very good analog for the nature of the. Of American football. How come sometimes you kick the ball, but usually you just throw it around or run with it?

[Ben Bullen]

It's a great series of questions. And the sport itself has these, what appear to be eccentricities or irregularities because of its blended family origins. It evolves from rugby and it evolves from actual soccer, you know, AKA Football Prime. But it differs from soccer chiefly in that, like rugby, it allows the players to touch, throw, carry with their hands. So it's different from soccer in that way. But it's also different from rugby because it allows each side to control the ball in Alternating possessions, that's where you, that's where you try to get your points before you run out of downs.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. I think of all the American kind of pastimes, it is the most full on physical and, you know, full contact of the sports. You know, in baseball you might get in some dust ups, you might bump into somebody running, but you're not going to tackle them to the ground, you know, and hold them there, dog pile on them. It is a much kinder, gentler sport than American football.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. Now this dog pile tackling stuff that can happen in other sports, but usually if it does, it's a fracas on the field. Something has gone wrong, a dust up. Yes. The sport of American football is played with two teams, 11 people on each side. And this sport is thoroughly North American. It's practiced primarily in the United States. It has become the country's leading spectator sport as we record today. It also, to be fair, gained a bit of a following in Canada and it evolved over time to a 12 man game. But it never quite knocked the zeitgeist the way that ice hockey does in Canada or the way that American football does here in the States.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, that's right. Even here in the States. I mean, you know, soccer, football prime is quite. Has gained popularity in the last decade or so. But the opposite isn't really true of American football. It doesn't really port particularly well to other countries, though the culture of it does seem to do so. Like because the super bowl and the super bowl halftime show and all of the ads are a genuine pop cultural phenomenon that do make waves in other parts of the world.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And even before the rise of this advertising boom associated with football, even before then, it kind of made sense that the United States version of football may not catch on across the world just because of some logistical stuff. You need a lot of people to play it. You need a lot of equipment to play it. It can be expensive. As we mentioned in the past, if you look at soccer, you just need a dream, a ball and some kind of piece of land that has two sides.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, that's right. And I mean football stadiums in and of themselves are massive displays of opulence. Here in Atlanta we have the very brutal kind of looming structure that is the Mercedes Benz stadium.

[Ben Bullen]

I like it. It looks like a Kaiju that got turned to stone by some kind of experimental weapon.

[Noel Brown]

When I say it looms, it does. When you're driving around and you start to see the edge of it creeping over the horizon, it's a little bit Sinister, I'm not going to lie.

[Max Williams]

Yeah, it's gonna look really cool when they implode it and a Martin bus gets in the way.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. This is the. My first experience there was amazing and perhaps not normal because it was one of the vaccination centers during the pandemic. And so when I went in there for the first time, it was empty except for me and, like, 12 people who had to sit around and make sure they didn't die after getting shot up. The scale of. It really hits when you see it empty. It's like a cathedral.

[Noel Brown]

I have only been in there once in my entire life, and it was for a similarly kind of odd reason. It was. Maybe not odd, but it was to vote. They had voting set up in there for, like, a local election, and I went when it was pretty dead, and it was very, very weird to be in there with just a handful of your closest friends. You guys remember when Kanye kind of haunted the Mercedes Benz like the rest of the opera? Yes.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, he had a. He had a military bunk. I did not. I did not see Mr. West during the vaccination stuff. That may be due to his stance on vaccines. Unclear. Maybe he was making a track, but.

[Noel Brown]

May have been lurking just in the wings, you know, wearing some sort of.

[Ben Bullen]

Phantom of the Opera. Yeah. Luckily, he wasn't making people participate in a listening party, which is not to be confused with the concert. Sorry.

[Noel Brown]

Well, they did have one there, but.

[Ben Bullen]

I lucked out is what I'm saying. Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

Well, you know, and to be fair, typically people that show up to those things are there of their own free will. Unusual thing, though, where you have a guy just kind of hyping up their own tracks. It's a little. It's a little. Try hard, I'm not going to lie.

[Ben Bullen]

I mean, it's a whole stadium, too, you know, there might be a different venue you could use for that. I'm just saying I lucked out again because he didn't jump out and ambush us. Haven't read much news about Kanye recently. Loved his first albums. Hope he's. Hope he's making it through as we all are trying to do same. And we know that. Look, like we said at the top, you might not be a fan of sports at all. You might not be a fan of football in particular, but odds are you are probably a fan of at least a handful of celebrities and notable figures who have made an appearance at the halftime show. So you've. At least.

[Noel Brown]

It.

[Ben Bullen]

It's crazy. It doesn't happen with other Sports, You've at least seen the halftime show once or some clip of it. If you live in the States.

[Noel Brown]

Sure. And all halftime shows are not created equally. Some of them fizzle a bit and they're kind of like womp, womp. And some of them live on in either infamy or, you know, like in the annals of pop cultural fame. Like Prince, for example, in his 2007 halftime performance where it rained while he was playing Purple Rain and the dude just ripped it. And it really is looked at as one because there you can find it on YouTube now. And as Prince has left this mortal coil rip to one of the greats, it is a fantastic example of his musicality and just performing genius.

[Ben Bullen]

Or the King of Pop paws, which we'll get to. Or there's also the lampooning of the pop in circumstance, like Red Hot Chili Peppers famously did when they refused to plug in their guitars because they want to participate in a farce. There's all this sort of stuff that goes into the halftime show of what is sometimes called gridiron football. That's another differentiation because it has the vertical lines on the rectangular field. So if we want to understand halftime celebration, we talk about the game itself. The super bowl game. It is pretty much a national holiday, especially when you get into states that have tons of football fans, like Wisconsin.

[Noel Brown]

Super bowl cheese heads.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, you're not going to get anything done that day. Not really.

[Noel Brown]

Especially if your city's team or a particularly vehement football crazed city's team is in the game and either wins or loses. Sometimes either of those results can lead to, you know, people setting cars on fire and stuff.

[Ben Bullen]

And if the game is happening in your city, not only are you not getting anything done that day, you probably should stay home because you're definitely gonna have a tough time driving places.

[Noel Brown]

It's true. So why don't we talk a little bit about the evolution of the super bowl, or as you put it, Ben, the superb owl, which I can only imagine is a reference to the giant owl structure in Bohemian Grove where all the weir rich cultists gather. Because, you know, things like the super bowl and like, you know, displays of that level of wealth and commerce and all of the famous people that get to go and are sitting in those boxes. I mean, there gotta be some Illuminati hanging out or involved in the Super Bowl.

[Ben Bullen]

And I just like superb owl because it's. It's a great typo word joke, but I'm with you there. Even just the cost of super bowl tickets are a pretty big differentiator between the casual fan, the die hard fan who saves up for years, and of course, members of the Illuminati, who probably pay the blood price.

[Noel Brown]

They probably pay the blood price indeed. And I mean, even, you know, for us mere mortals, to get just a basic super bowl ticket can be incredibly difficult, right?

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, yeah, yeah. It can get past money. We're talking lottery, we're talking hustling, all kinds of stuff. And look, if you made it to the very first super bowl, it would have been way easier for you to get in. This is 1967, and it happens because previous to 67, there were two competing football leagues. The NFL, which we know today, and the AFL, National Football League, American Football League. They negotiated this team up and they said, look, we're going to join together, we're going to make our forces one, and at the end of every season, we're going to play a championship game to see who is the best. And there were a lot of stakeholders in this. There were lot of team owners who were part of the negotiation, and they all had the same two goals. Better competition. Yes, sure. But also more money. Way more money. So much more money.

[Noel Brown]

Cha Ching. Yeah. Lamar Hunt was the owner at the time of the AFL's Kansas City Chiefs, who you may have heard of because of their proximity to Taylor Swift. He was a big part of these negotiations. He kind of, as a gag, as a little silly goof, suggested calling it the super bowl because his kids liked to play with a toy that was very popular at the time, At a time where maybe there wasn't quite as much saturation in the children's toy market. It just had a thing called a Super Ball, which is literally a bouncy ball that bounced quite, quite efficiently.

[Ben Bullen]

And there was super stick at the time. There was super handful of dirt. It was just a different super rock. Just a different era of toys. Yes.

[Noel Brown]

Super spring. I'm sorry, that was the Slinky that.

[Ben Bullen]

Was advanced for the time. I think the Slinky was out by the 60s. But the super bowl, yes. As a throwaway, kidding, not kidding phrase originally. It didn't catch on. We know that he was kidding around about this because Hunt wrote to the NFL commissioner in 1966 and literally said, I have kiddingly called it the super bowl, which obviously can be approved upon. He thought the name was too corny to ever be used in public. And then Roselle said, why don't we call it the Big One or the Pro Bowl?

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, sure. It's funny. It's one of those things though, where it's like sometimes the stand in name for a thing just sticks around for so long and nobody comes up with a better idea. That just becomes the thing. But now, this far removed from the original Super bowl of 1967, can you imagine it being called anything else? I mean, it's just, it's like maybe the Mega bowl would be kind of cool, but super bowl, it just kind of makes sense, you know, for what a massive thing it would become. Maybe it didn't earn the name right away though. And that maybe is what led to the little bit of a tongue in cheek kind of feeling around that name.

[Ben Bullen]

My spiritual friends would say it manifested itself. We know that the first matchups proceeded even as they were trying to figure out this name stuff. And originally they called it it the very buttoned up AFL NFL World Championship game, which is just a mouthful. It's too much. So sports writers and fans alike already in the court of public opinion started searching for something else to call it. Everybody just started calling it the Super Bowl. By 69, they said, look, we're going to make that the official title. And then the next year the two leagues merge. Boom. Now we have the super bowl as an official name. The name isn't on the first big game again, but the halftime show, the actual halftime celebration is older than the name Super Bowl.

[Noel Brown]

Well, sure, I mean, we, you know, I. It's something that I think we've all experienced even at high school football games where you have like the part of the game where the marching band comes out and like the nerds get a chance to shine. This is very, very common. There was always like a. For some sort of in game entertainment while things were being shuffled around or the players were taking a break.

[Ben Bullen]

And if you ever want to mainline that experience and you happen to be in our lovely metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia, if you have not been yet, you've got to go to the All Star Battle of the Bands where all the HBCU bands get together and they do like a compilation of their halftime show. I go almost every year. It's just a blast.

[Noel Brown]

I haven't been Ben. And you are giving me another thing to add to my Atlanta bucket list.

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, it's a fun adventure. I don't know about you guys, but I add to the stage now where going like happy hour is fine or whatever, but if I have free time, I want to go have weird adventures. I don't want to go to the usual places and fart around. So battle events, great Knoxville, Tennessee got to me. They programmed me over the weekend. We get so many great day trip kind of things around here, Noel.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, for sure. Yeah. You mentioned also on a recent episode there's a Tibetan temple or like a Buddhist temple, I believe.

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. There are a couple. There's baps, which is the Hindi temple or Hindu temple, Our lady of the Holy Spirit, which is the Catholic place. There are a couple of Watts we could visit, which are, you know, the Buddhist temples. Oh, man. You know, you find your own super bowl halftimes. I guess it's what we're saying.

[Noel Brown]

It's true. And we're going to get into some ways that super bowl halftime shows in and of themselves are. And football honestly are a kind of religion or a kind of spiritual experience for a lot of people, right?

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And this may not have been apparent in the very first super bowl halftime show. It was, to your point, it was, by 2024 standards, pretty modest. It's just a way to entertain folks. It is very much a live intermission. And I think the assumption was this is where people visit the restroom. This is where people go get snacks and I guess re up on their sodas or whatever. So they had marching bands, but they said this is a big deal game. So they had two marching bands.

[Noel Brown]

That's right. The marching bands of the University of Arizona and Grambling State University. I don't know Grambling State, but I guess they were big at the time. And you know, the idea of combining these bands, much like that battle of the band situation, or maybe they weren't combined, but they were certainly playing in tandem and kind of switching off. And I also love this quote from the piece. The evolution of the super bowl halftime show, then versus now at an event.com, they intended this event to help celebrate collegiate spirit and musicality over commercial spectacle. Oh, how far we have fallen since those simpler days.

[Ben Bullen]

Well, the turns are tabled. Four downs on that one. We go to also, Stephen Wood writing for history. And Stephen woods points out a very human, individual aspect to the story. He introduces us to a guy named Duke Fields. Duke Fields, nominate of determinism, Perhaps is only 19 years old during the first halftime show and he plays at the Super Bowl. The super bowl is occurring between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers. He is a. A veteran at this point. He's played for Grambling State University for a while now. This is old beans to him. Grambling, by the way, is in Louisiana. And he looks into the stands at the La Coliseum. And he says, I wonder how this gig is going to compare to all the other performances I've done during my time with this band. And he says this. We gotta give the direct quote. Then I saw the Rocket Men. Two guys with jet packs. My God, those things were loud.

[Max Williams]

I know.

[Noel Brown]

They had jetpacks back in 1967. I thought we were still working on that.

[Ben Bullen]

We were working on good ones. These were not the good ones.

[Noel Brown]

Fair enough. Yeah. Two guys with jet packs. He had no idea at the time that he was participating in history and that this meager event, though seemingly a little different with the Jetpack Men, was going to lay the groundwork for what would become one of the hugest, most ostentatious displays of wealth and pop culture and commerce and advertising in the history of the world.

[Ben Bullen]

The world. World. Yeah. Let's go to Bonnie Berkowitz, whom we've mentioned in previous episodes, as well as Lazaro Gamio writing for the Washington Post. They say this first show was indeed free of commercialization and what they call bloat. They said, quote, two college bands formed shapes of classic Americana, such as a paddle boat and the Liberty Bell.

[Noel Brown]

It's charming. But, however, despite its wholesome beginnings, there were still some controversies. They go on. All this played out in Los Angeles, which was recovering from the 1965 Watts riots, which were horrific at the time. The ban from Grambling was criticized by some the African American community for playing amid the climate of racial tension. And this comes from Larry Pannell, who was, at the time of this article, the director of the band.

[Ben Bullen]

And we know everything occurs within its own context, and people are pretty talented at figuring out when a show is going to be a hit. So other historically black schools look at the super bowl, look at Grambling State, and they say, this is a huge opportunity for us. This is a huge showcase. This really promotes the visibility of not just our band, but of our own school. So now Grambling is considered a huge trailblazer in this regard. You can actually find footage of the original super bowl halftime show on YouTube. But we want to warn you in advance, folks, it is not the best quality. It might. As a matter of fact, the quality is so bad that it might be fun just to have a cinema of the mind. You know what I mean? Look at some still photos.

[Noel Brown]

100%. I gotta know that. I mean, like, were the jetpacks, like, functional? They were flying around, zooming around.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, functional. I would say functional, but not practical.

[Noel Brown]

Okay.

[Max Williams]

It was just for the show. Like, they kind of, like, went up and, like, stuff like that. They weren't flying into the stands and, like, high fiving.

[Noel Brown]

Okay.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, they weren't doing, you know, Blue Angels. These guys were not.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, I understand. Funny thing, too, is something is that looms as large as the super bowl is going to end up having some kind of historical game of telephone kind of conspiracy theories surrounding it, or maybe even Mandela effect kind of stuff where it's like, oh, I remember this thing that definitely happened at the super bowl. But in fact, the record would show that it either did not happen or it did not happen happen the way one might think.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes. Yeah. So the first halftime show, you've got what counts as a panoply of variety acts. You got the two marching bands. You got the jetpack stunt. You got pigeons being released. And then for some reason, there's a Civil War reenactment. Because that goes over well. Sure, that in after the Watts riots, that goes over well. But one thing it did not have to that point about myth, it did not have the Three Stooges. It appears this is actually what we would call a factoid. A factoid is something that sounds true and is not true. So it is a factoid or a piece of misinfo to say the Three Stooges performed at halftime. You can see people even authoritatively listing the bits that the Stooges did. But Snopes, our good friends at Snopes, they have found this is, in fact, false. And it comes from one of the Three Stooges, Larry Fine. You know, Larry from the Three Stooges from earlier. He says that they performed at the halftime show. But the only record of that being the case comes from this one guy in his one book. We haven't heard from two thirds of the Stooges on this.

[Noel Brown]

And what about Shemp? I want to hear from Shemp. Yeah, Yeah.

[Ben Bullen]

I want to hear from Ja.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. What does Ja have to say about it? No, that is interesting how, like, one little thing like that said with enough authority can convince enough people that they themselves believe that they saw this thing take place. But no, no proof, no video evidence, audio, photographic or otherwise evidence exists of this supposed incident taking place. It sounds to me like Fine maybe with trolling a little bit, I don't know.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. In Fine's defense, let's remember he's a legendary comedian. So when a legendary comedian is writing an autobiography, I think he's writing a humorous book. So I don't think he was intentionally trying to mislead people. This happens all the time in the great game of telephone. Somebody says something as a joke, you fast forward long enough, and people are quoting it chapter and verse as though it was the stone cold Steve Austin truth.

[Noel Brown]

Well, nowadays. Nowadays, too, with like, TikTok videos and stuff, where people will do things under the guise of satire, but they're really just kind of telling lies with a straight face. That is a really easy way for misinformation to spread if you're not kind of doing your own homework. So be careful out there, guys.

[Ben Bullen]

Early on, our nascent NFL, which hasn't yet formed, it's not quite 1970, they kept this halftime show idea interesting. The marching band's a hit. People love the marching band.

[Noel Brown]

Who doesn't love the marching band? I love the parade.

[Ben Bullen]

And they also love the songs that are being played. You know, school fight songs, patriotic songs, all the hits. Right. So that is a guaranteed winner on the ticket. And then they mainly kept it to. For the first couple years, they mainly kept it to area high school bands.

[Noel Brown]

If I'm not mistaken. Our dear friend and colleague on stuff that I want you to know, Matt Frederick participated in a Super bowl as a member of a marching band here in Atlanta.

[Ben Bullen]

That's correct. And you can hear him tell stories about that on. On that show over the. Over the years. It's a great story. It's an awesome storyteller, and he's got an inside look that I think we all appreciate. You can hear, I believe it's on our episodes, about whether or not all sports are rigged.

[Noel Brown]

That's right. And that's stuff they don't want you to know, the podcast. But yeah, it's true. NFL really did try to stick to this kind of tried and true formula. And it's kind of interesting, too, considering where they went in terms of, like, these bands and all of these medleys and stuff. It. You know, when I say bands, I mean like rock bands and like, big pop artists. The initial days of the super bowl were still kind of this weird jukebox musical. They just weren't performed by the actual artists themselves.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And if we go to 1970, when the NFL officially reaches its final form, we see that the city of New Orleans tried to spice it up a little, add their own zhuzh to it.

[Noel Brown]

Who that? Who dat? Who that? Is that what they say? That's what they say. The Saints.

[Ben Bullen]

And it went terribly. It was an utter disaster. An hour before the fourth Super bowl in 1970, it's Kansas City and Minnesota playing in New Orleans. The Weather bureau says, hey, might be some tornadoes on the way. And they say, oh, that's a pickle. Because we were hoping to land the mascot of the Vikings in a hot air balloon. They did land, just not where they wanted and not how they wanted. The balloon crashes into the stands. No entries.

[Noel Brown]

I was hoping it made it to the land of Oz.

[Ben Bullen]

Unfortunately, it's a twista.

[Noel Brown]

And then all of a sudden, the wizard of Oz is now, like, a dude in a Viking costume. That would be a fun alternate reality version of that story.

[Ben Bullen]

You gotta take the ruby jockstrap.

[Noel Brown]

There you go. Oh, man, poor Mike Tyson. By the way, can we just talk really quickly?

[Ben Bullen]

You're talking to.

[Noel Brown]

They did him dirty, man, with that jockstrap interview with his butt hanging out.

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Where he told that kid, everybody dies.

[Noel Brown]

Well, that's a different story.

[Ben Bullen]

That's a different interview.

[Noel Brown]

If he had been doing that one in a jocks trap, that would have been doubly weird. I call that one like a reverse wonder chosen. Instead of the kids saying weird existential dread stuff to an adult, it's the other way around, y'all. If you haven't seen this, look it up. It's Mike Tyson talking to a little kid who's just excited to be there and is like, what do you want to leave behind for your legacy? He's like, we are just dead. It's a big black nothing. He sounded like Tony Sopranos mom to this little. She's like, thank you so much for that perspective.

[Ben Bullen]

He wasn't being rude to this kid.

[Noel Brown]

He wasn't being rude. He was looking dead in her eyes, though. I mean, it was intense.

[Ben Bullen]

He wasn't talking down to her. I think he was trying to give her some hard Tyson truths.

[Noel Brown]

I know, man. Like, yeah, thanks for crushing my dreams, Mike Tyson.

[Ben Bullen]

You could have gone different directions, but he got his check. They. They all got paid. He's 58 and will hopefully retire comfortably. But also Netflix fix your streaming. Yeah, point that out.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, you know, I was. I was actually at a concert when it was happening. It was just kind of getting the live tweet updates or whatever. But it does seem, if we're talking about conspiracies, a lot of people do feel like he went a little easy and took some punches, and there's some video of him kind of, you know, popping around, bopping around. Yeah. But again, he also did seem to lack the mobility.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And having a career, that's very punishing to your body for decades. Anyway, they don't. We could Do a history of boxing, too. That'd be interesting. We must.

[Noel Brown]

I'm starting out. I think I'm a sporto now. I think I'm a sporto now.

[Ben Bullen]

Put on the list. All right. Yes, I. I'm glad. Well, I welcome you on your journey. I can't wait to learn about more obscure sports with you. I like the obscure ones. I kind of want to see a Buzkashi game. I don't know. We'll see if they tour the U.S. good luck getting in and getting out. Da da da da da. So the halftime show. The halftime show where the Viking mascot invades the stands. No one's injured, everybody panics.

[Noel Brown]

Oh. Cause he plops down in the stands in the hot air balloon.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes. Yeah, the balloon.

[Noel Brown]

That sounds dangerous. Those things are big.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. It doesn't land where it's supposed to land. And even before then, we know from our pal Stephen Wood of history, even before then, there was a bad vibe on the game. The National Anthem that is performed during all of these games is a flop. They have, like, a spoken word, kind of Shatner version of the National Anthem.

[Noel Brown]

Oh, say can you see.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes. By the dogs.

[Noel Brown]

Early alight. Yes. Pat O'Brien, though.

[Ben Bullen]

Who the heck.

[Noel Brown]

He must have been big at the time. Let's see. Pat O'Brien, film actor. Hundred screen credits to his name.

[Ben Bullen]

Irish American actor in.

[Noel Brown]

Though I don't.

[Ben Bullen]

He was Angels with Dirty Face. Oh, some. Like. He was a guy.

[Noel Brown]

Okay.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Noel Brown]

Something Like It Hot. He was paired with James Cagney a lot. It would seem so. Kind of a golden era. Hollywood actor past his prime. He would have been kind of trotted out as sort of like a legacy type, you know, piece of Americana. Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Bullen]

He was born in 1899, so he's a little up there in years by the time we get to 1970, which might explain why he was doing spoken word and not singing. He was also called Hollywood's Irishman in residence.

[Noel Brown]

Can we also just say really quickly, since we were briefly talking about the Mandela effect, which is this idea of people remember false memories of a thing that did not actually occur. Like the Three Stooges performing at the first super bowl halftime show.

[Ben Bullen]

First. Shazam and Kazam.

[Noel Brown]

Shazam and Kazaam. Any number of them, of course, named after the famous activist, politician, freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, who many people believed had died in prison, which was not infected. Fact, the case. So that's where that comes from.

[Ben Bullen]

Check out our episode on this. I'll give you. We'll give you this Spoiler. Some people also got confused and called it the Mandala Effect. And the whole reason the Mandela Effect got its name is because these people were arguing about what really happened to Nelson Mandela. And they were so set in their way about it that instead of saying, oops, maybe we were incorrect, they said, oh, the past has changed and the multiverse is real. Because otherwise that would mean we were mistaken.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah, that would be way too inconvenient. So for me, I think. I don't know if anybody else has experienced this. Pat O'Brien was actually in a kind of noirish gangster movie with Jimmy Cagney called Angels with Dirty Faces that I always got flipped with. Angels with Filthy Souls, the fake gangster movie from the Home Alone movies that I believed was real. And I was confirming that by the existence of Angels with Dirty Faces, because I looked it up and I thought that was the movie, but it was actually Angels with Filthy Souls, which they shoot to look very authentic. And the name is obviously a reference to this. But no, that movie, in fact, was created for the films.

[Ben Bullen]

And Angels with Dirty faces starring Pat O'Brien comes out in 1938. He's probably more notable for some like y'hat in 1959. But in this milieu, what we're telling you is there was a celebrity at the top of this super bowl, the fourth super bowl, doing a spoken word like rendition of the national anthem. And there's a trumpet player and a marching band that are accompanying him. So he needs a mic to be heard because there's a big crowd as well. There are a lot of instruments around. His mic cuts off as he's reading the National Anthem. What does the band do? It's just. It's an awkward vibe, which sometimes is worse than a scary vibe. And then, let's see, we go through the game, first two quarters, Kansas City is just running it. And then came the halftime show, which one sports writer called a Roman circus. You know why? Because they did a battle reenactment.

[Noel Brown]

Yeah. But they kind of took some creative let's. That's being generous liberties. Let's just call them liberties. The Battle of New Orleans. History buffs may remember from history, this was a reenactment of this historic battle involving hundreds of reenactors. A recreation of the white stallion of Andrew Jackson. Not a good guy, by the way. Andrew Jackson, very, very racist. Horrible figure. But at the time, I think maybe he still had some sheen to him, because this was kind of meant. This is. There was not really a partisan aspect to this game. I think they were doing this or intending this to appeal to everyone. Which is interesting because nowadays it seems like this would be way off base.

[Ben Bullen]

Right? Yeah. And I would agree that saying taking creative liberties is perhaps a bit too diplomatic. Their quote unquote reenactment that had hundreds and hundreds of participants, it was a lot more like someone with too much money had once had a conversation about the Battle of New Orleans and then said, okay, yeah, let's do something. There were definitely cannons.

[Noel Brown]

I had to be, let's make them really loud. That'll be a nice spectacle. It's interesting though too, because that Roman circus comment that you mentioned, Ben, they would, in Roman coliseums, they would flood them at times and like reenact sea battles and things like that. And I've always, I'm sure this isn't like a unique take, but kind of likened football and the spectacle of it all to like gladiator battles and like, you know, you are literally doing it in a Roman style coliseum. So this, I guess maybe there was somebody involved that thought this made sense. Let's bring it back to our history. But also nod to the history that kind of, you know, led to this type of spectacle. But they did a pretty bad job.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. Because you know, whenever you're about to get high falutin, you have to ask yourself, should I just stick with regular falutin?

[Noel Brown]

I love getting high falutin. It's the best.

[Ben Bullen]

So we know that the. The reenactment was not really great because the Andrew Jackson, the horse that Andrew Jackson was riding just bolted and freaked out when they exploded these cannons.

[Noel Brown]

Imagine that. Right?

[Ben Bullen]

And there was a weird twist. I guess they're trying to invoke their own Mandela effect. The Yanks and the Frenchmen in the Battle of New Orleans. The reenactors are sprawled on the ground fake dead, but the red coated British are still just firing away. Zippity doo dah falutin high. And an opera singer is singing Basin Street Blues during this halftime circus in the Sugar Bowl. But even though she's an opera singer, trumpets are loud and another trumpet player drowns her out. And newspaper columnists and sports fans alike don't love this. It feels like the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of the halftime show instead of the actual show, the Super Bowl. One sports writer damned it with faint praise, saying, fortunately, they sneaked a football game in between all that jazz.

[Noel Brown]

They sneaked. Wouldn't it be snuck? Well, yeah, maybe this is an old timey way of saying, I get it. No, but that's funny, though, because, like, it really, that does kind of to some seem like what it's become. Like the game is almost an afterthought compared to the advertisements and the halftime show.

[Ben Bullen]

And we know the next series of super bowl performances tried to course correct to swing the pendulum back to the stuff they knew worked. Local marching bands. There were exceptions where they had folks dance on a giant birthday cake, like the 1976 celebration of America's founding with.

[Noel Brown]

Like a showgirl popping out wearing feathers and diamonds.

[Ben Bullen]

I think they were dancing on the cake.

[Noel Brown]

On it. Okay. I just. I love. I love someone emerging from a giant fake birthday cake.

[Ben Bullen]

Oh, man. We have an episode about how messed up that past is, don't we?

[Noel Brown]

Oh, we do. There was an unfortunate event, I believe, where a woman did not, in fact, make it out of the birthday cake.

[Ben Bullen]

But when it works as normal, it's a fun time.

[Noel Brown]

It's a lot of fun. And, you know, they've come a long way in birthday cake emerging safety.

[Ben Bullen]

And there were other, you know, funny one offs. In 1979, they were trying to parade around a float called Salute to the Caribbean, but they snagged a goalpost and they couldn't get it off the field. That was. That was more of a funny thing. And then, of course, fans storming the stage in 1982, it looked like they were just invading. Looked like a riot was on the way. And then just like that improv everywhere group, they broke out into a choreographed dance.

[Noel Brown]

It's just like the original flash mob.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, like flash mob. Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

Okay. And then you start getting a little bit more corporate, where you start having some crossovers or let's call them collabs with other massive entertainment leviathans like the Walt Disney company, who in 1984 participated in staging a massive performance that included Mickey Mouse himself. Then in 1985, we saw a show that had just about everything. They really just threw everything at the wall and to see what stuck.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. And they learned that there is a law of diminishing returns for variety shows that kicks in, especially when you're a matroshka doll format. You're a show within a show. You know what I mean? And it's important for them to remember that as the 80s wrap up and as the super bowl is getting its stadium sealegs, it becomes more and more popular and the traditional halftime show becomes less and less popular because it's the same old thing. Right. I've heard somebody play this song. I know that marching band.

[Noel Brown]

I've seen People dressed up in furry type costumes, you know, prancing around the field.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah. A hot air balloon hitting the stands, whatever. We weirdly have that at home.

[Noel Brown]

Been there, done that. No, it's true. And at this point too, the game itself is really starting to hit its stride and becoming massively popular. Starting to approach that level of sensation that we know it today. But the halftime show just wasn't keeping up with that. So we can probably pause right now just before we get to the modern super bowl halftime show.

[Ben Bullen]

Yes. Yeah. And the madness that will ensue. So join us later this week for part two of the history of the super bowl halftime show. We what? We can't wait for you to explore with us, folks. We've got you. Right to the. Right to the cusp, as Noel was saying, of the more modern celebrations. Big, big thanks to Max Williams, our super producer. Big, big thanks, of course to AJ Bahamas Jacobs. Big, big thanks to who's the football team that meet needs the most like empathy. And you'll get them next time, kind of the Angels.

[Noel Brown]

Buffalo Bills.

[Max Williams]

Buffalo bills. They lost four Super Bowls in the 80s.

[Noel Brown]

All right, well, the Angels are a baseball team and I was thinking of Angels in the outfield. Surely there's a football equivalent.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, okay. Yeah.

[Noel Brown]

Air bud, golden receiver.

[Ben Bullen]

And to the. And thank you and good luck to the Buffalo Williams out there.

[Noel Brown]

Can you also give huge thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the Quizzter, who quite often back in the day on his podcast tech stuff would talk about the hyperbole meaning hyperbole, but he would pronounce it the hyperbole. Hyperbole would have been a pretty cool futuristic name for a game like this. It's a stand by mega bowl.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, it's still gonna happen. So big, big thanks to Quizzter. Big, big thanks to Alex Williams who composed this slapping bop. Who else? Noel? Who else?

[Noel Brown]

Oh, Christopher Hasiotis and Eve, Jeff Coates here in spirit. Ben, thank you for co authoring this amazing two part brief with our buddy and super producer Max Williams. This has been a romp and I look forward to getting into part two next.

[Ben Bullen]

Yeah, and this is the cool part, folks. So as we call it, as we call it a day, we like to take a little break in between these. What do you think our halftime show is just for. Just for the three of us and our pets.

[Noel Brown]

Well, I'm gonna go have a nice.

[Ben Bullen]

Coffee and I am going to do some strange statue reconstruction.

[Noel Brown]

Love that. We'll see you next time, folks, for more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.